2020 CONCACAF Champions League

2020 CONCACAF Champions League
2020 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League
Tournament details
Dates February – April 2020
Teams 16 (from 9 or 10 associations)

The 2020 CONCACAF Champions League (officially the 2020 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons) will be the 12th edition of the CONCACAF Champions League under its current name, and overall the 55th edition of the premier football club competition organized by CONCACAF, the regional governing body of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Qualification

A total of 16 teams participate in the CONCACAF Champions League:

Therefore, teams from either 9 or 10 out of the 41 CONCACAF member associations may participate in the CONCACAF Champions League.

North America

The nine berths for the North American Football Union (NAFU) are allocated to the three NAFU member associations as follows: four berths each for Mexico and the United States, and one berth for Canada.

For Mexico, the champions and runners-up of the Liga MX Apertura and Clausura Liguilla (playoff) tournaments qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League. If there is any team which are finalists of both tournaments, the vacated berth is reallocated using a formula, based on regular season records, that ensures that two teams qualify via each tournament.

For the United States, four teams qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League, three through the Major League Soccer (MLS) season and one through its domestic cup competition:

If there is any team which qualifies through multiple berths, or if there is any Canada-based MLS team which are champions of the MLS Cup, the Supporters' Shield, or conference regular season, the vacated berth is reallocated to the U.S.-based team with the best MLS regular season record not yet qualified.

For Canada, the champions of the Canadian Championship, its domestic cup competition which awards the Voyageurs Cup, qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League. While some Canada-based teams compete in the MLS, they cannot qualify through either the MLS regular season or Playoffs.

Central America

The five berths for the Central American Football Union (UNCAF) are allocated to five of the seven UNCAF member associations as follows: one berth for each of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama. As all of the leagues of Central America employ a split season with two tournaments in one season, the champions with the better aggregate record (or any team which are champions of both tournaments) in the leagues of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League.

If teams from any Central American associations are excluded, they are replaced by teams from other Central American associations, with the associations chosen based on results from previous CONCACAF Champions League tournaments.

Caribbean

The sole berth for the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) is allocated via the Caribbean Club Championship, a subcontinental tournament open to the clubs of all 31 CFU member associations. Since 2018, the competition is divided into two tiers: the Tier 1 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship which is open to teams from professional leagues, and the Tier 2 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield which is open to teams from non-professional leagues. To qualify for the Tier 1 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship, teams have to finish as the champions or runners-up of their respective association's league in the previous season.[1] The champions of the Tier 1 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League.

CONCACAF League

Besides the 15 direct entrants of the CONCACAF Champions League, another 16 teams (13 from the Central American Football Union, 3 from the Caribbean Football Union) enter the CONCACAF League, a tournament held from August to October prior to the CONCACAF Champions League.[2] The champions of the CONCACAF League qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League.

Teams

The following 16 teams (from nine or ten associations) will qualify for the tournament.

In the following table, the number of appearances, last appearance, and previous best result count only those in the CONCACAF Champions League era starting from 2008–09 (not counting those in the era of the Champions' Cup from 1962 to 2008).

Qualified teams from North America (9 teams)
Association Team Qualifying method App (Last) Previous Best (Last)
Mexico Mexico (4 berths) 2018 Apertura champions
2019 Clausura champions
2018 Apertura runners-up
2019 Clausura runners-up
United States United States (4 berths) 2019 MLS Cup champions
2019 MLS Supporters' Shield champions
2019 MLS Eastern or Western Conference regular season champions
2019 U.S. Open Cup champions
Canada Canada (1 berth) 2019 Canadian Championship champions
Qualified teams from Central America (5 or 6 teams)
Association Team Qualifying method App (Last) Previous Best (Last)
Costa Rica Costa Rica (1 berth) Champions with better aggregate record in 2018–19 season
El Salvador El Salvador (1 berth) Champions with better aggregate record in 2018–19 season
Guatemala Guatemala (1 berth) Champions with better aggregate record in 2018–19 season
Honduras Honduras (1 berth) Champions with better aggregate record in 2018–19 season
Panama Panama (1 berth) Champions with better aggregate record in 2018–19 season
Qualified teams from Caribbean (1 or 2 teams)
Association Team Qualifying method App (Last) Previous Best (Last)
TBD 2019 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship champions
Zone TBD (Central America or Caribbean)
Association Team Qualifying method App (Last) Previous Best (Last)
TBD 2019 CONCACAF League champions

Draw

Location of teams of the 2020 CONCACAF Champions League
North American Zone Central American Zone Caribbean Zone

The draw for the 2020 CONCACAF Champions League will be held in December 2019.

The draw determines each tie in the round of 16 (numbered 1 through 8) between a team from Pot 1 and a team from Pot 2, each containing eight teams. The "Bracket Position Pots" (Pot A and Pot B) contains the bracket positions numbered 1 through 8 corresponding to each tie. The teams from Pot 1 are assigned a bracket position from Pot A and the teams from Pot 2 are assigned a bracket position from Pot B. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other in the round of 16 except for "wildcard" teams which replace a team from another association.

The seeding of teams are based on the CONCACAF Club Index.[3] Each team qualifies for the CONCACAF Champions League based on criteria set by the respective associations (e.g., tournament champions, runners-up, cup champions), resulting in an assigned slot (e.g., MEX1, MEX2) for each team. The CONCACAF Club Index, instead of ranking each team, is based on the on-field performance of the teams that have occupied the respective qualifying slots in the previous five editions of the CONCACAF Champions League. To determine the total points awarded to a slot in any single edition of the CONCACAF Champions League, CONCACAF uses the following formula:

Points per Participation Win Draw Stage advanced Champions
4 3 1 1 2

The 16 teams are distributed in the pots as follows:

As of 25 April 2018
Pot Rank Slot 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2018 2019 Total Team
Pot 1 1 MEX2 16 20 30 25 4 95 Mexico
2 MEX3 32 23 15 17 4 91 Mexico
3 MEX1 11 33 27 12 4 87 Mexico
4 CAN1 23 8 22 21 4 78 Canada
5 USA3 13 16 20 17 4 70 United States
6 USA4 20 16 8 5 4 53 United States
7 USA1 11 14 11 11 4 51 United States
8 MEX4 9 18 10 9 4 50 Mexico
Pot 2 9 USA2 9 13 14 7 4 47 United States
10 PAN1 4 10 20 8 4 46 Panama
11 HON1 15 10 11 5 4 45 Honduras
12 CRC1 12 10 8 5 4 39 Costa Rica
13 GUA1 11 8 9 0 4 32 Guatemala
14 SLV1 4 7 9 7 4 31 El Salvador
15 CCC1 4 8 5 4 4 25
16 SCL1 0 0 0 5 4 9

See also

References

  1. ↑ "CONCACAF Announces Expanded CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship for 2018". CONCACAF. 15 December 2017.
  2. ↑ "Details revealed for newly launched Scotiabank CONCACAF League". CONCACAF League. 8 May 2017.
  3. 1 2 "Q&A: Club Index for 2018 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League Draw". CONCACAF.com. 29 November 2017.
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